It’s been twenty laugh-filled years with what has been called “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” In 2003, the owner of an irregular clothing shop in San Francisco, Tommy Wiseau, independently financed his magnum opus—an oddly shot, strangely edited, almost-incomprehensible-from-scene-to-scene film extravaganza called The Room. Apparently begun as both a novel and a play, The Room was a financial bomb at the few cineplexes that showed it until people began going because they enjoyed the bizarre "qualities" of the film, eventually turning it into a midnight movie success not unlike The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The story of a banker (who actually visits many rooms, none of which are definitively the room) and his cheating “future wife” (the Eastern European Wiseau’s words of choice for the much simpler fiancée) who begins a torpid (& turgid) affair with the banker’s best friend Mark. Along the way we are treated to scenes of inexplicable gravitass (scenes usually blown off rather quickly) concerning a drug deal gone wrong, a mom dying of cancer in a blasé way, a psychiatrist friend who’s “just a little chicken” and disappears toward the end of the movie to be replaced by a character speaking his lines, an inexplicable scene of tuxedo-clad football, and a couple who provide (I suppose) the original intended comic relief as if the other goings-on weren’t already hysterical.
I came across The Room first by way of a Youtube series that I loved, The Nostalgia Critic.
Comedian/impressionist Doug Walker created the character of a loud-mouthed critic who “reviewed” nostalgic films of my generation’s past (roughly the late ‘80s-early ‘90s). The series continues to this day, but now mostly concerns itself with new releases (fitting as most every “new release” is nostalgic of something—sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, reimaginings, you know what’s out there). But its early episodes, made on much smaller budgets, were the most fun because they brought back to mind forgotten films of my youth from the skater movie Airborne to the shameless Chuck Norris vehicle Sidekicks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Saved by the Bell, and Nickelodeon programming. Walker also has a continuing bit throughout the series where he “reviews” nostalgic commercials from our childhood, which were bizarre in and of themselves (and remind us of the toys and games we loved as youngsters).
To include The Room early on in his series was a bit odd as 2003 didn’t really warrant nostalgia in the late 2000s, but Walker’s zeal for the film (masked as criticism of it) was infectious. An earlier review on the same site (now named Channel Awesome), Allison Pregler (under the handle Obscurus Lupa) was also funny and made for me acquiring a copy of The Room for my collection a necessity. On its own, the film does have unique charms, but I much prefer to watch it with either one or the two commentaries provided by the boys at RiffTrax, an offshoot of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, which provides comic mp3 audio commentaries for everything from strange offerings of films past to new blockbusters.
In the mid-2010s, I co-created and co-hosted a little-heard podcast called The Old Mill, which in its third episode included a sketch I had written where Michael Bay consults with Wiseau on a big-budget Hollywood remake of The Room (funny because now the film has been remade with Bob Odenkirk in the lead role). The sketch, which included a cameo appearance by “Nicolas Cage” parodying the character of Chris-R, the aforementioned drug dealer who is, by far, the best actor in The Room.
Since The Room’s unusual success, there has been a book about the making of the movie, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, a wonderful dive into low-budget moviemaking written by Greg Sestero (the actor who plays Mark in the film) with help from Tom Bissell. The Disaster Artist itself was also adapted into James Franco’s film version, which was critically lauded but not my cup of tea as Sestero’s own recounting of the events made for a movie in my head no one could duplicate. Incidentally, Sestero’s audio recording of the book is a pure and simple treasure, including his much-lauded impression of Wiseau.
Wiseau has continued to work infrequently, collaborating with the (arguably) pioneering comedy team of Tim & Eric on Adult Swim and producing one season of his long-gestating “sitcom” The Neighbors, which was released on streaming platforms and is atrocious in a slightly-less endearing way than The Room.
My first collection of non-fiction, Everyone Else is Wrong (And You Know It): Criticism/Humor/Non-Fiction features two pieces on The Room—one a "synopsis" for a stage musical version that I posted on an earlier blog and a “fake news” article on The Room being added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, which I wrote for the comic A/V site The Studio Exec (the piece was removed from the site when I discovered my articles had been reprinted under byline names which were not mine—the editor called it an oversight, I felt it just a slight considering how many of my humor pieces were rewritten by him in the first place). So, my love for The Room is well-established and I’m not sure how much I can add to the lore that surrounds it except to say it is must-see for fans of what I coin “craptastic” movies.
Of course, the truth is there are much worse movies. There is a documentary that makes a convincing argument that, in fact, Claudio Fragasso’s Troll 2 (unrelated to the movie Troll and, for some reason, about goblins instead) is much worse. That film is Best Worst Movie and I highly recommend it. Both The Room and Troll 2 get beaten up on largely because, I think, they were independently financed. In reality, much of the worst stuff is corporately-financed Hollywood dreck—pick almost any random Adam Sandler movie (with a few exceptions) or something by the Wayans clan and you realize pretty quickly slick editing and a higher budget can’t save the awfullest ideas from becoming anything other than trash. But The Room holds a special place in my heart as a truly bizarre effort that most folks agree began as a serious film and was rebranded a “black comedy” when Wiseau realized it made people laugh. I’ve often wondered if this makes him sad on the inside, but he’s been game to accept his role as an outsider filmmaker who made a camp classic.
If any of this recommendation makes you concerned that you'd have to sit through one of the worst movies ever made, I have only one response: as 900 characters say, multiple times in The Room, “Don’t worry about it.” Sit back, relax, and enjoy the weirdness. To its 20th anniversary—and many more years of laughter, intended or otherwise!
Below, I share with you the sketch, “True Tales from Hollywood,” from The Old Mill. I play Michael Bay and Nicholas Cage. The sketch was recorded, edited, and featured R. Daniel Walker as Wiseau.
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